Erbil, 26 November 2018 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conducted a two-day consultation session to review the data and information collected during the last five months to draft the 6th national biodiversity report for Iraq.

National stakeholders and representatives from the Ministry of  Health and Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Higher Education, Institutes, local authorities, Academics, NGOs, and UN agencies jointly reviewed the collected data, and assessed the progress of the achievement of each national biodiversity Target and national Strategy on Biodiversity (2015-2020), in addition to identifying the gaps of information to finalize the 6NR draft to be submitted to the convention of Biodiversity secretariat by the end of this year.

The General Director of the Technical Department in the Ministry of Health and Environment, Ms. Shatha Kadhum said in her opening speech during the session: “It is imperative for us today to achieve national participation with all Stakeholders to describe and evaluate the national effort in preparing this report, as it is considered one of the most important tools that can be used to assess achievement of the national goals for protection of Biodiversity contained in the national biodiversity strategy. This report is considered as an environmental message to decision-makers in order to provide the protection and support required to protect biodiversity”, she said.

On behalf of UNDP/ Environment, Energy and Climate Change Program Manager, Mr. James Duku said: “This report provides an important basis for consideration of the post-2020 global biodiversity strategy, The information developed from this report can be used not only to understand current biodiversity status and trends, but also to understand how well a country’s actions are contributing to national and global conservation targets”. Adding that: “It is clear that within the last three years after the adoption of the National Biodiversity Strategy on 2015, Iraq suffered from the critical security and economic conditions that restricted the survey and assessing the status of Iraqi ecosystems and habitats, threatened and endangered species, this was reflected as a challenges in the report, this will give a chance of supporting  Iraq by the Global community”.

The session concluded with valuable inputs which will help to draft the 6th national report that meets all international requirements and reflects the status of biological diversity by end of this year.

For additional information, please contact:

Ms. Israa Mansour, Communications Assistant, (m): +964 772 260 0576